Categories
Middle Eastern

Jbeil Cuisine – Enfield NSW Restaurant Review

What do you do with these? What is the completion rate on these, and what happens to the remaining pickles that are left over?

We really enjoyed the tangy batata bi kizbara ($16) – “deep fried potato tossed in coriander, garlic, mild chilli & lemon juice”. It’s hard to go wrong with deep fried potatoes in general, but the citrusy and garlicky sauce was just an excellent accompaniament. People with a pathological aversion to coriander do have a pathological aversion.

I didn’t love the sambousek meat ($16). Though the filling of mince and onion was dense and falvourful, the pastry was dense and dry and unexciting. This could’ve been better with an oilier or less dense pastry.

The samkeh harrah ($19) “oven baked barramundi topped w coriander, roasted nuts, tahini & chilli sauce had potential but was far too salty to the point of inedible for me, even eaten with Lebanese bread.

The skewers platter to share ($44) was seriously excellent. It featured 2 skewers each of  kafta, laham mishwi & shish tawook, all of which was extremely juicy, fresh and tasty – the Platonic ideal of what Lebanese meat skewers should be. This, together with the garlic and chilli sauces, was perfection, and should be an unmissable item for any first time visitors.

Overall: In our experience, an equal number of hits and misses. Use this insider info to avoid at least 2 misses from their menu and maximise the hits.

Jbeil Cuisine Enfield
Shop 1 2/12 Coronation Parade, Enfield NSW 2136
(02) 9067 3107

Categories
Asian Fusion Café Japanese

Bloc145 – Redfern NSW Restaurant Review

Some restaurants deserve a wholeheartedly lukewarm response, and in my opinion Block145, a cafe we drove half an hour to eat at, is one of them.

We were tempted by the Salmon Okonomiyaki ($20) and a desire to relive some good meals we had overseas. Unfortunately the gap between expectation and reality was quite large in this dish. While the grilled salmon was well cooked with a crispy skin, that was the first and last superlative of the meal. The okonomiyaki itself I found disappointing, with a high flour content. It was sadly not what I was looking for.

After a recent success at Cafe Mckenzie in Randwick we decided to go for yet another Toastie with truffle oil, honey, and parmesan ($14). Sadly this particular toastie was far less exciting than the benchmark set by its competitor, with no great feeling of substance to it. It was quite small, and I would have much rathered more toastie than a salad I didn’t ask for.

These crispy smashed potatoes ($10) continued our breakfasts’ trend of being completely unsatisfying. I don’t really see what made them crispy or smashed. They really were essentially regular roast potatoes with a sprinkling of salt.

Pictured above, a photo of a bloody mary that I did not have. My partner did.

THOUGHTS
I’m sad about my trip to Bloc145. Their menu has so many wonderful looking items I am left wondering if I simply chose the wrong things, or if my experience would have been like this regardless of what I chose. I wouldn’t go back.

Bloc145
145 Redfern St, Redfern NSW 2016
0403 655 661